Summer Art Class
by SliferHeart
Summary: Namine is given the 'honor' of teaching a growing group of Kingdom Hearts characters in her favorite subject: art.
1. The Beginning

I don't know how I came up with this... only that I was thinking about art and how weird it would get if she had to teach a class... ahem... please read and review- both are greatly appreciated!

Disclaimer: I don't own anything out of Kingdom Hearts or Final Fantasy.

Chapter One:

Namine settled onto her stool, drawing pad folded onto an open, clean page. Before her, a group of youngsters- ranging in ages of ten on up- were seated at desks grouped together in groups of four, looking confused. The rest of the room was dominated by various tools and media most commonly used and found in a public highschool art class. It was nearing ten-o'-clock- the official start of her first class.

Feeling only a touch nervous- this was the absolute first class she had for the next two weeks- she tucked a stray lock of pale blond hair behind one ear and smiled. "Good morning, everyone," Namine rested her blue eyes on each pupil one at a time. Each kid stared back at her, utterly bored out of their minds. "Welcome to the Summer Art Course- a sort of creative summer camp for those who detest real summer camps..." No one got her joke. Nonetheless, Namine felt it to be her duty to laugh herself- it helped to relieve the stress.

"Wait... so this isn't Cooking?" One of the older 'youngsters' asked.

"No. This is Art... Class..?" Namine watched, confused, as a large- nearly all- of the students get up and walk out of the door. The kids that remained were three teens she recognized from her own classes.

The boy closest to her, the easy-going, spikey-haired brunette most people referred to as 'Sora', smiled. "We're ready to learn!" He gestured at the other two- the stoic, white-haired boy known as Riku and another cheerful brunette called Kairi. Riku gave her a small smile, while Kairi gave her a really big grin and a hearty wave.

Namine sighed. She didn't mind having the three be her students- it was just that an entire school year had passed and the three had been in all of her classes. And ten months of Sora, Riku and Kairi went for an equivalent of ten years that anyone should be forced to be in the same room for six hours with. To put it simply, the blond was sorely tempted to run after the others and make half of her art class be cooking as well. She would've dragged them back in if she had to.

But she resisted the urge. Namine sighed again, determined to continue with her class no matter what, when loud crashes, cruses and whatnot came down from the hallway outside the room, interrupting yet again. The noises built slowly in volume until the causes of the such said violence raced into the room at top speed, one skidding to a stop by running straight into a group of desks.

The four teens watched on in stunned silence while the second and taller newcomer slammed the door shut and grabbed the nearest chair to jam it underneath the doorknob. He ducked down below the tiny rectangular window set into the door as their pursuers- an entire horde of hall monitors and a few ticked teachers- raced by.

No one spoke for a long time afterwards. The first incident came from the two newcomers giving each a high-five. The taller of the two helped the other one up to his feet again. "See, Roxas," the redhead grinned, completely oblivious to the audience, "I told you we could get out of..." He noted the direction his companion was looking in and followed his gaze. "Oh shit."

Namine sighed. She recognized the redhead and blond from the numerous visits they had made to the Principals's office during the period she spent helping out in the office. Axel and Roxas- class clowns, smart alecks.. basically a teacher's and substitutes worst nightmare.

And now they were both in her classroom and, considering the unhealthy clicking the doorknob made as Axel removed the chair..- a sure symptom that meant that it was broken and would not open-, here they were to stay.

This was certainly not the first day she had imagined.


	2. Bowser

YAAAAY!! I got some reviews!!! Thank you so much for those who reviewed- I appreciated every single one of them! Oh- and thank you to the person who pointed out that I had messed up Kairi's and Riku's hair color. I won't be making that mistake again, and I'm sorry that it bugged you... I'll try to figure out how to fix that without having to reload the chapter- I'm somewhat lazy, you see- but until then...not sure.. Errrr... anyways. Um, I'd just like you all to know that I'll try to update on a regular, steady pace, but that probably won't happen. I'm going to be busy with school and softball and stuff... but I'll try to- I promise. THANK YOU VERY MUCH TO YOU ALL!!!

Disclaimer: Still don't own anything out of this... but I wish. j/k

* * *

Chapter Two:

Namine resisted the urge to bury her face in her hands and cry. Instead, she forced herself up off of her stool, leaving the sketchbook behind, and joined her two new students at the door. Neither of them heard her coming, nor did she believe that they would have cared. They were far too busy trying to escape.

Axel had his hands wrapped around the doorknob and was trying to force the door open. All he managed to do, however, was to shake the pseudo-wood door back and forth in its frame. "We're trapped!"

"Didn't you bring your lock pick?" Roxas asked him, considering the lock's defenses carefully. Knowing this public school, it could probably be destroyed with one well-aimed hit.

"Nah- my dad took it... said something about me being a criminal and a failure in his life. I don't really know, though- I wasn't listening."

"What about the lock pick you keep to get the stuff your dad takes?"

"Bowser ate it."

The blond- plus anyone else in the room that knew about the 'pet' dog- blinked. "Your dog ate it?! Why?" Bowser, a large slobbery Bull-Mastiff 'pup', had two loves in his life: slobbering the people he didn't maul, and mauling the people he didn't slobber. He was a sweet if psychotic dog.

Axel shrugged. "Yeah- I kinda forgot to feed him last night. So he let me know by eating the lock pick and by chewing my dad's shoes to bits! It was great- Bowser was just laying by the door, one shoe already decimated and the other one he had in his paws, chewing and ripping off the rubber part!" The redhead had a large grin on his face, clearly reliving the memory. "And then my dad came out, and he started yelling and screaming, threatening to turn Bowser into a new pair of shoes and all that... and then he turned on me, but then I left."

Behind the two of them- still being ignored- Namine was becoming more and more shocked. She had walked past the redhead's house before, and had seen the monstrous dog. Well, actually she had HEARD the monstrous dog as it walked along with her on the opposite side of the fence to the end of the property. At which point, Namine had almost started running- the thing behind the wood was growling, whining, sniffing and sneezing at her all at once. It was enough of an experience to keep her from going past Axel's house again.

"So what about Bowser?" Roxas asked.

"I had to bring him with me."

Namine nearly jumped up two feet into the air at the sound of that news. As if on cue, shouts from down the hallway reached their ears. There was a lot of curses, yelps of pain and surprise, and a lot of repeated questions that went along the lines of, 'Who brought this &$ing DOG here?!?!'

The redhead shrugged again. "He'd be a pair of loafers if I hadn't."

"Yeah, that would be sad."

The shouting finally came to an end, much to every- save the two oblivious Nobodie's- relief. Namine was ready to exercise her teacher authority and to tell the two boneheads to sit down and shut up- because if she didn't, then Sora and Riku were bound to judging from the death glares they were giving the redhead and blond- when her voice died in her throat as the sounds of clinking metal became present. Good lord no, she thought to herself, imagining Bowser with blood dripping from its mouth, panting and looking completely content with the world. The clinking ended right outside the door frame, and then the barking and howling began.

Behind Axel and Roxas, all four of the teens clapped their hands over their ears, wincing in pain. The two Nobodies were quite used to the noise, and against a sane person's better judgement, were trying to get closer to the door, looking out the window towards the ground. Between the barking, Axel exclaimed, "Hey- Bowser found us!!"

Roxas elbowed the redhead. "Tell him to get us out of here."

"Oh, um.. he hasn't learned that one yet... He gets confused."

"What does he do? Just bark?"

"Uh, no. He likes to roll around on the ground and slobber anything that was left lying around. Plus some other stuff," he looked over at the girls and refused to say anything else on the subject. "But he does try! He might go try and bite off the doorknob later."

Namine squeezed her eyes shut. Just great- she'd lose this class because a certain redhead couldn't train his dog like any other normal person. She sighed, forcing herself to regain control. "All right- Roxas, Axel-"

"What?"

"Go sit down- you two are interrupting my class and-!"

Roxas and Axel exchanged looks. The blond looked back at her, once again choosing to cut her off in mid-sentence. "Wait... you're teaching a class? But you're in our grade!"

"I knew that Ms. Gurlin was a vampire!" The redhead was completely oblivious to the looks he received for his statement. "we'll have to stake her later, Rox'. Bring some holy water... garlic-"

"Yeah, sure thing."

Namine's face broke out into an unusal scowl. Lines between her eyes were perfectly diagonal towards her nose. Riku was the nearest, most attentive person. He noted the look on her face and gulped. Things were about to get very, very noisy... Hopefully it wouldn't be like last time..

"BOTH OF YOU SIT DOWN AND SHUT UP!!!" Everyone in the room jumped five feet into the air. Even Bowser was quiet. Namine noticed none of these changes- she turned quickly on her heels and stomped back to her stool. She was going to make this class work- with the clowns or not. The blond snatched the sketchbook up off her seat and sat back down. Her eyes scanned the room, pausing on every nervous person's face. She narrowed her eyes at Axel and Roxas. "Well...?"

The two exchanged looks again before Roxas raised one hand slowly up into the air.

"Yes?"

"I just want to say...," he paused, considering his next words carefully, "Wow."

It only took one tiny growl from the girl to send the two scurrying towards the nearest group of desks. Namine smiled, her anger easily melting away. (A fact that allowed Sora, Kairi and Riku to relax again.) "Thank you. Now... let's get started.."

* * *

Thank you for reading and reviewing-! I hope you still enjoy it! Thanks again! 


	3. Test Drawing

Uhhhh... please read and review, and thank you! And I'm trying to make this funny, so... please hold on...

Disclaimer: Still nothing. Sad, no? j/k

* * *

Chapter Three:

The minutes ticked by as fast as the second hand would allow them to, and still Namine was flipping through her sketch book. Sora, quickly becoming bored, started to tap the end of his pencil rapidly against the desk top. It helped drown out the annoying jokes and insults the two newcomers were currently throwing back and forth. Even better, the dog or monster- whatever was out there- had decided to stake out the room, what with the loud thump the door made as it laid down beside it- according to Axel.

Kairi was seated across from him, frowning at the ceaseless pencil drumming. "Sora-"

"Yes, Kairi?"

"Could you stop that?"

"...stop what..?"

The auborn-haired girl sighed. Apparently, the lazy bum of a brunette's mind was off on its own planet. "Nevermind..." She sighed again, throwing a look over at Riku, seated- not of his own choice, of course- across from the redhead, Axel. He didn't seem too pleased to be there, to put it simply.

"Got it!!" Kairi's attention was brought off the silver-haired boy and his current situation to her art teacher, who's eyes were finally off her sketchbook and onto her class. The girl seemed much more at peace again, the same gentle smile back on her face. Namine left her seat once again, picking up a pile of white paper. She started to pass the papers out, ignoring the comments/questions the newest 'students' said.

Standing up at the front of the room once again, Namine set aside the remaining sheets of paper and waited patiently for complete silence.

It lasted for all about two seconds, which, if she had been quick enough, she should have taken advantage of.

"Hey- paper airplanes!!" Across from Riku, Axel was already bent to the task of folding his sheet of paper into the classic model of an airplane. Roxas watched for all of two seconds, grinning, before he started in on making one of his own. By the time the blond had gotten to folding the wings, Axel had completed his. He leaned back, one hand holding the paper airplane over his shoulder, and then let it fly up into the air. "Flight Number 108 in the air!"

It made a few lazy flips before it made a suicidal dive down towards Riku's head. The latter, who had been watching the whole procedure, noted the paper's descent and tried to duck out of the way. The plane followed his descent, nailing him in the back of the head. The second airplane followed the same route, adding only one extra flip in the air before diving downwards.

Roxas sighed. "Flights 108 and 113 reporting Mayday-"

"Nah, Rox'. Forget the mayday... Flights 108 and 113 are gone."

"Twilight Zone!!" The blond began to hum the theme music to the show, completely oblivious to the glare he was getting- well, his legs were getting- from Riku, still sprawled out on the floor with the two airplanes stuck in his hair. He considered untying the blond's shoelaces and reknotting them together, but dismissed the idea on the account that it wasn't original enough. Revenge would just have to wait.

Riku got into his seat again, his eyes two narrow slits. Behind him, Namine deftly plucked the two airplanes out of his hair and placed two new pieces of paper for Axel and Roxas to use. "Now, what you... five are going to do for the next fifteen minutes-" Originally she had planned on giving her students close to twenty minutes, but with the blond and redhead she had been forced to cut it down a bit. Fifteen minutes seemed a better estimate for their attention span, "-is to take a brief drawing test. What I want you all to draw is some recognizable object, such as a pet or a tree, that is G-RATED, SCHOOL APPROPRIATE , ecetera, ecetera."

Axel raised his hand.

"What?"

"Does 'ecetera' apply to-"

"Yes."

Namine left the table side and dtarted for her stool. "You can begin."

* * *

At Table One, Sora began to tap his pencil against the desktop again. Every so often he'd stop and move the point down over the blank piece of paper, then hesitate, and eventually end up back to the tapping. He sighed, his eyes turning towards the other occupant.

Kairi was working diligently on her drawing, one slim arm wrapped around the edge of her paper protectively. She didn't notice how he tried to tilt himself so far to either side of his seat in order to see her picture, nor even when he stood up slightly to look over her arm. Both methods didn't work- her hair blocked his view every time.

Defeated, Sora sat heavily back into his seat. "What'cha working on, Kairi?" he asked, hoping she'd move enough that he'd get the tiniest peek at her sketching.

"A picture."

Well, that was helpful. The brunette tried a different angle. "I'm not sure about what to draw... any suggestions?"

"Hmmm... how about... a Heartless?" The girl glanced up from him from under her auborn-colored bangs, a mischievous smile on her lips. "Or, how about a kitten?"

Sora frowned. "I'm allergic to cats."

"But you can still draw one, right?"

"I signed for this art class to learn how to draw!" The brunette threw his hands up in the air, getting frustrated. "I didn't know that I was going to have to take some test on the stuff before I learned anything. That is a cruel and unusual punishment- like math!!"

Kairi's smile, which was now tilted back towards her paper and sketched-in lines, only widened as the brunette's ranting continued on. It was a nice background drone to her working.

"- and those Shadow Heartless? They never stop moving!! How is anyone supposed to make a good drawing with one of 'em in it when they're heads keep bopping back and forth?! Like- like this! See, Kairi?! No one except Picasso could make a drawing of something that won't stop moving its head, and even he couldn't make 'em 3-D! Actually, he never does anything in 3-D. He cuts things up into itty-bitty boxes and puts them in random places on these huuuge canvasses-"

Ecetera.

* * *

Meanwhile, at Table Two, things were progressing a little differently. Riku had considered the space of his sheet of paper carefully, planning out the extremely rough, extremely uncoordinated sketch of something that should, by the time he was done with it, look a little like a raft. Hopefully..

He tried his best to keep his mind directly onto the task ahead of him, but his ears picked up on his two deskmates conversation. At times it almost tore him away from his work. Almost.

"What are you drawing, Axel?" Roxas had made the mistake of glancing off of his paper onto his friend's. His eyes had thus gone through an aerobic exercise through the emotions of confusion, amazement, and then back to a mixture of concern and amusement. "It looks like a dying animal."

The redhead stopped drawing, leaning back to better criticize his work- at which point Riku finally gave in and peeked as well. His lack of self-restraint resulted in several moments lost for drawing- and shrugged. "It's Bowser. And Bowser is certainly not dying." He looked over at the door and, as if on cue, the barking began again.

Poor Riku was rewarded a large, dark line scratched over his paper.

"See? Not. Dying."

The blond shrugged, turning back to his work. He came across some inner thought, and stopped again. "Ya know, Bowser does look like that when he's dreaming. Especially when he's chasing the mailman."

"Like a rabid rabbit?"

"Yeah."

Riku came to another pause in his work. His mind had gotten flooded with images of a white, foaming-at-the-mouth rabbit with long, ragged ears and fur, and two bloodshot, mad eyes, on the heels of an innocent, scared-out-of-his-mind mailman. It was frightening and hilarious all at the same time. Especially since the rabbit in his mind was still holding onto a carrot between its bunny teeth.

"Yeah.. maybe you're right," Axel continued to study his drawing while the blond went back to his own. After some time he decided that Bowser needed longer canines with more blood dripping off of them. When he had finished that task, the redhead studied the figure again and nodded, satisfied. "Finally- time to get to the real artwork."

"Huh?" Roxas looked back up again.

The redhead's hands was folding the paper carefully into several complicated shapes in succession, not saying another word no matter what question was put before him until he was done. When he did look up again to start talking, the formally plain, rabid-dog drawing paper had been folded into a perfectly crafted, jet airplane, with some added-on canons and missiles. "Ta-dah!!" He held it up for Roxas and Riku to see. "The picture of Bowser certainly puts the 'dog fight'-ing potential in this baby! F-16, bomber mix. Whaddyathink?"

Roxas considered the plane carefully, and slowly started to nod. "That's a good one..."

"You do realize that paper airplanes is not what we're supposed to be doing, right?" Riku directed his frown onto the redhead. Since his steady working pace had been broken already, it wouldn't hurt anything to actually get involved.

Axel arched one eyebrow. "She didn't say that I couldn't.., right?"

"Well.., no. But-"

"Ex-ACT-ly!" The redhead ignored the rest of the Riku's protests. He moved his arm back, and let the plane loose into the air. "Phoenix 8 up for battle!"

The plane swooped through the air, twisting around the table's occupants. The three teenagers watched it go and go, their eyes following it as it flew upwards over their heads. At that altitude it made another dozen or so twists in the air, as if a pilot inside was really deciding on where to go next.

Finally, it made its choice. The jet-bomber mix began its inevitable descent, landing straight into Riku's forehead. From there, it fell directly onto the desk in front of the silver-haired kid. "Phoenix 8 is down for repairs-" Axel moved quickly to pick the plane back up, but was stopped by Roxas's hand on his arm. "What?"

The blond pointed at the plane. "That is a good composition for a still life. No one move it!" He let the redhead go, swept up his pencil and started drawing.

Riku, to put it simply, was not pleased.

* * *

Smiling peacefully to herself, Namine allowed herself some five minutes to enjoy herself. Plus, her teaching philosophy included doing the work she demanded of her students. Her own 'test sketch' consisted of a peaceful garden, filled with flowering bushes, a flowing fountain, and the Keymaster beating up on a large horde of Heartless with his two friends and flashing keyblade. Kairi was tending some roses, while Riku was pounding the life out of some stray Shadows with his size twenty boots.

Nothing too difficult, of course.

The blond glanced up at the wall clock and sighed. Peace time was over... it was time to become the teacher again.

She tucked her pencil into the spirals of her sketchbook, placing it aside as she slid off onto the ground. "All right, guys," Namine clapped her hands together, sweeping her smiles over the room. The looks she got in return was surprise, annoyance, and a few grins- two aimed at something that had been going on before, she bet, "It's time to wrap it up. Since we've got some time ahead of us.." A large amount, since the door was broken and they were locked inside... but let's not get into that again. "You get to decide whether we want to do a class critique-"

"-a what?!"

"-Or you could just pass them in, and I'll hand them back at the end of class... whenever that is... and you can see how much you've improved. Got it?"

From the back of the room, Roxas sighed loudly and stuck his hand up into the air. "What is a critique?! How are we supposed to vote on something we don't know about?!"

"Right, good. Now, who wants to do a class critique?" Namine waited for anyone's hands to go up into the air, and counted all of one. "One. Okay... so you all want to just hand them in..?" Both Sora and Riku started nodding, already holding their papers in their hands. Her eyes were turned towards the back table, where she noticed that the last two students were talking to each in hushed tones, evidently discussing something, what with the wide hand gestures and shaking of their heads.

She sighed, mentally reminding herself not to strangle them. "Roxas... Axel..?"

Her voice brought an end to their argument. The two glared at each other and then nodded once sharply, in unison. Axel twisted back towards the front of their room and cleared his throat. "Ahem... Ms. Namine? We'd like to turn into our votes now."

"Oh, really?"

The redhead nodded, completely serious. "Yes. Roxas is voting for the critique thing-a-ma-jig, because he really wants to learn what the f- sorry, what you were talking about."

"..Okay.."

"And I would like to vote in favor of the same action, because it sounds like fun."

There were two audible groans from Riku and Sora, which were ignored by everyone else. Namine nodded, further to the two boys' dismay. "Okay, Axel.. Roxas. We'll do a class critique." More groans. "Okay, everyone bring their chairs and papers into a circle in the middle of the room- no... leave the desk behind, Axel."

Namine brought her stool and sketchbook into the slowly forming circle, picking out a spot between Kairi and Riku. This way she'd get to keep an eye on the blond and redhead- they just could not be trusted for longer than two seconds. "What we're going to do," She settled herself onto the stool, flipping onto the page she had sketching on earlier, "is show off our work, and I'll pick someone to say what they like... or dislike, I suppose, about the art. But this is meant to be constructive criticism, not-"

"Oh, wait a minute," Axel flipped one hand through the air, gaining their attention, "that sounds like what our parents say," he gestured between himself and Roxas, "when what they're really doing is complaining over how their ex-es ruined and spoiled us in our youth."

"No... this isn't the same thing." Namine decided not to follow up on that line of conversation. She turned her eyes onto Sora and smiled. "I think I'll start it off... Sora- what do you think?"

The brunette started slightly. "Well, you can go first if you want. I don't care-"

"I meant my drawing... what do you think of the drawing?"

"Oh! Well, it's uhhh..." His blue eyes took in the thin sketching, narrowing his eyes when he started to recognize some of the things and people in it. "Hey, wait a minute-! That's me.. and-and Kairi, Riku, King Mickey... Goofy and Donald-!!"

Roxas cut through the brunette's words. "Wait a minute- we were supposed to do portraits?! I just drew some stinkin' airplane he made up!"

Namine sighed and flipped her sketchbook shut. "Nevermind. Kairi- would you please hold your drawing up for us?" She turned her eyes down onto the girl. It was becoming increasingly obvious to her that Kairi would be the person to call on when help or normalcy was needed. It was either that, or letting chaos reign free in her classroom.

The girl obeyed, holding up her paper for all to see. A few quiet moments went by before everyone started to giggle and then laugh- save for one very embarrassed Sora and Namine. The latter teen was smiling. "Does anyone want to volunteer for the critique?"

"Kairi-!! How could you?!" Sora didn't bother with raising his hand- he was far too shocked at the scene his friend had decided on etching. He, drawn in a 2-D version of himself, was running along a beach, eyes and mouth wider than his head. Behind him, a large flock of seagulls were flying in, heavy frowns set over their cartoonish faces. "We agreed to never let anyone else know!"

Axel looked over at him. "Dude- that is not the worst thing she could have revealed about you. In fact, she could have-"

"Thank you for volunteering, Sora," Namine choose that exact minute to interrupt, "What did you like about Kairi's drawing?"

The Keyblade Master forced himself to take another, closer look at the work. He sighed and looked back towards Namine. "Well... minus the embarrassing part, it's pretty good."

"Okay, but what about the technique?"

"Huh?"

Namine glanced over the other students faces, dismayed at the numerous confused expressions looking back at her. "Like... perspective... the shading... um, rendering.. Just put some adjective in front of it."

"Oh. Okay. Um, well, the rendering and shading of the event is, uh, perspectively done."

The blond sighed. This was going to take some time, apparently.


	4. Chapter 4

I am soooo sooo ssooooooo sorry that this update took forever. Um, thank you to everyone that is reviewing... and also reading. Please continue! More importantly, enjoy!!

Disclaimer: Still nothing. I'll keep wishing, so I'll let you know how it works out.

* * *

Chapter Four:

"Is that a dead chipmunk?"

That had been Sora's enlightening critique of Axel's depiction of Bowser, since he had been forced to undo the paper airplane upon Namine's instructions.

"Wait- I see it! It's those scuffed marks on the corner there!"

Roxas and Axel gave each other high-fives over the blond's triumph in spotting Sora's 'invisible' drawing.

Kairi was allowed to critique Riku's picture, and she took her time. "Well.., I like the texture in the wood you put in." Namine was very pleased that someone had elected to willingly use an 'art term' at last.

"...What texture..?" Riku twisted his paper back around, eyes searching for whatever his friend had seen. A shadow fell over him and the paper, and a finger daintily pointed out a spot on the mast.

"Right there."

He moved the paper away from him, feeling his face starting to go red. "Oh- that's a line I forgot to erase."

Despite the blush on her own face, the auborn-haired girl shrugged and said in her usual cheerful manner, "Maybe you should do that more often- it looked... uh, realistic." She moved quickly back to her feet as Roxas tried to crowd Riku in order to see the 'magical' line. He was pushed away with a mumbled remark.

The blond's enthusiasm didn't diminish any. His excess energy went into hopping, more or less, up and down repeatedly in his seat. Although Namine inwardly shuddered at what he could be so excited to show off, he was the last to go, and there was no reason to cut the critique short. "Your turn, Roxas. Who-"

Roxas grinned and lept out of his chair fast enough to make it topple backwards onto the tiled floor. He held his picture in front of him, turning slwoly in circles so everyone could see what he drew. To Namine's relief, it wasn't anything bloody. "I thought I'd just do a still-life, but then I got bored and decided to add in Riku and some other realistic details. Notice how Riku's drawing is smoldering under the fiery plane crash- and that I added in two seconds ago!"

Riku was given the pleasure of critiquing.

"My eyebrows do not make a 'v' like that!"

"They are now."

Namine ruled it to be a good time to have everyone disperse back to their tables. She placed one restraining hand on Roxas's shoulder, pointing him out to his new seat. He took it unwillingly, if the loud protests were any real indication of his resentment to the change. However, as she saw it, there wouldn't be any accident reports to fill out if Roxas was kept out of Riku's reach.

* * *

Roxas found himself assigned to the desk next to Kairi, drumming his fingers on its surface to fill the silence and to cure his boredom. Why it couldn't have been Riku to be moved was beyond him- this 'class' was going to bite dirt if he couldn't goof off with his best pal anymore.

Which, of course, was impossible to prevent.

He turned his gaze onto Namine with a sigh. "Great.. more things to do.." The girl had recovered a whole stack of papers, all neatly stapled into individual groups of about fifty-two, as far as he could tell. He did a more accurate count once she had placed one down in front of him.

According to his calculations, Namine had just placed a total of thirty-two potential paper missiles for his own personal use, all just begging to be thrown around the room. Roughly six per person, with two more in reserve.

Yes.

* * *

Sora watched the newbie to his table warily, his ears only half-listening into his teacher's instructions. He didn't much like the fiendish glint in the blond boy's eyes, nor the knowing look he and the redhead had exchanged.

He was now flipping through the packet eagerly, gently pulling one page away from the staple after another. He was an expert at it, apparently- the tiny ripping sounds that were made went ignored by everyone else.

The brunette's eyes turned towards the redhead. Axel was also carefully and silently taking apart each page. Across from him, the silver-haired teen was obviously making an effort to ignore his table-partner for as long as possible.

Sora leaned back in his chair with a sigh. Something was going to happen- and he had no idea what it was nor what he could do to stop it.

* * *

"Any question?" Namine asked at the end of her tiny speech. She thought it was pretty self-explanatory- working on 3-D boxes to practice perspective was easy- but you never knew. Certainly not with some of the people in her classroom.

She smiled when no one said a word. "All right, you can all begin." She waited until everyone's head was studiously bent over their make-shift 'workbooks' before walking right over to the door. There had to be a way to open the door, busted lock or not.

Placing the extra papers aside, the blond considered the doorknob, experimentally trying to turn it. There were steady clinks with each movement. Namine was no lock expert, but even she knew that couldn't be a good sign. (Now... there has to be some way to work this out...) She dug out a plastic paint knife from one of the nearby cabinets and attacked the latch in the space between the door frame and door itself.

The task kept her busy. Too busy to notice what else was going on.

* * *

The attack started slowly in an alternating pattern. Roxas would crunch one of the arsenals softly under his desk, wait for someone to drop their defenses, and then pelt said-person with a paper ball. He chuckled to himself at their surprised, confused expressions, pretending to draw a little 3-D box.

When everyone was busy again, Axel took his turn.

Within five minutes, both Sora and Riku had been nailed exactly six times each, Kairi three times, and Namine only once. The last resulted in a brief warning speech, which ended up having little to do with the missiles and more with getting the door open. She did rest a glare on both Roxas and Axel before she went back to knifing the door. They choose to leave her alone after that, 'lest she decided to go after them instead of the door.

It became far too boring far too quickly for both the blond and redhead. And, of course, they ran out of missiles to use.

Axel considered the amazingly clear desktop in front of him, tracing one figure in an aimless finger on it. He sighed loudly, hoping the silver-haired kid would actually say or make some indication that he acknowledged the redhead's presence. When neither happened, the redhead leaned forwards and tapped the desk.

"..What?" Riku glanced upwards through his bangs. He didn't want the other boy to even get the tiniest of peeks at the mutilated rectangles that were, by some weird cruelty of life, supposed to line up to look like three-dimensional boxes. It wasn't working for him.

"Do you have a piece of paper I can use?"

Riku frowned, taking his eyes off the redhead long enough to search the latter's desk for the packet of worksheets he was supposed to be working on. "Wha- why?" He knew better than to ask what had happened to the thirty-two or so sheets. Somehow, the anonymous attacks were no longer so... anonymous.

".. because I want to get one tiny thing for this assignment done.?"

"Of course you do." And he promptly went back to his own work.

Axel sighed again. "Please?"

"No."

"Do you want me to fail?!"

"..you're not technically in this class."

The redhead leaned forward again, replying in a whisper, "Hey- I'm locked into this room just like you... so how am I NOT in this class?" Even Riku couldn't think of a snappy response to that question.

* * *

Namine pounded the doorknob with one fist, wincing in pain. That had not been a wise move, apparently. Nor did it work, much to her continued dismay.

She took a step away from it, finally giving in. Some things just could not be done on one's own. But that was why there was an inter-phone system in school buildings.

All that she had to do was get some other teacher in the building to answer their classroom phone, tell them the problem, and then they'd be able to open the door from the outside- hopefully- and free them from this scholastic prison. (Not that art itself was the prison... it was just the people.) Her hopes didn't address certain realities, but neither did Roxas or Axel's plans and those always worked out perfectly.

Of course, once Namine had located the phone and started for it, leaving the door completely alone, her Knight in Shining Armor arrived. Bowser must have left his post, because the newcomer was able to open the door without screaming and cursing. The noise of the doorknob turning brought everyone's attention onto him- much to his embarassment, actually- and Namine was the first to say anything.

"Don't close the do-!"

Click.

The blond sighed, closing her eyes shut when their fate was sealed once again. After a few seconds of peaceful darkness, she opened her eyes again, turning them onto the newcomer. She recognized him, more or less, from another 'genius' out of Axel's grade. He was the tall, blond mullet-head with a small streak of clumsiness that was overshadowed by his usual optimism/hyperness. "...Um... opps..?" Blue eyes flicked between Namine and the door and back again.

Namine shhok her head, forcing a smile- no matter how strained- onto her face. "Nevermind.. which teacher sent you down here?"

"Oh- none of 'em.. I overslept this morning and ran into the wrong classroom..." The boy swept his eyes around the room. He ended up looking back at Namine again, somewhat confused. "Um, this is cooking, right..?"

The entire room was silent. The newcomer shifted his weight from one foot to the other, obviously nervous. A few more agonizing seconds ticked by, and then Roxas said very clearly for all to hear, "Does it look like we're cooking, Demyx?"

His question was followed up by Axel. "Idiot."

* * *

Sliferheart: Yay!! Someone new to torture- I mean, to share the joy!!

Axel: You meant torture.

Sliferheart:.. and..?

Kairi: That's not nice.

Sliferheart: Oh well. Thanx, and please review!!


	5. Phone Troubles

Good lord, I am SOOO SORRY that I let so much time pass before updating again. If you wish to well at me, go right ahead- I deserve it. Then, when you're done yelling, please continue reading and enjoying what randomness my brain has decided to put in there. If anyone wishes to put in some suggestions.. as I'm slowly running out of ideas... I will gladly welcome them, and try to get as many as possible in. If not, that's okay too. Anyways... Thank you, I apologize again, and please enjoy, as always.

Disclaimer: still nothing... unfortunately... Don't worry- I'll live. Somehow... j/k

* * *

Chapter Five:

"This really isn't the cooking class?" Demyx was standing beside Namine, who was dragging the hidden telephone into use from underneath a large load of paper. He didn't register how she was too busy to acknowledge his question, nor did he actually wait long for an anwser before prattling on. "'Cause I went to the room that had been listed under 'Cooking', but some kid in the class said it was here... Ya know, I think he lied."

Namine bit back a triumphant cry when the phone was finally freed. "We'll find out. Hold on-" She could barely hold in her excitement; her fingers pressed the number for the main office faster than she had ever seen them move before. A smile was plastered on her face... and quickly started to deflate as she came to the realization that there was absolutely no noise on the other end.

No ringing.

No static..

And no human- or mechanical- voice.

This couldn't be happening...

The phone fell onto the counter top from her limp hand. Namine didn't bother to replace it; she just stared at it for the longest time before cracking. "NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!"

Demyx skittered away from her, hiding behind the nearest desk. Everyone else followed suit- Sora and Roxas crashed into each other on their mad dash to the floor, with Kairi running smack into the two of them. Riku was informed 'kindly' how his sneakers smelled 'absolutely horrific' from a gasping Axel.

Overall, when Namine's cry of anguish came to an end, she discovered an amazing lack of people sitting in the plastic chairs at the desks. She watched, mute, as her students started to emerge again slowly, keeping a wary eye on her. "Opps."

And then, like some miracle from up above, the phone began to ring, making the skittish group of 'students' dive for cover again. Namine ignored this, completely entranced with the phone. She fumbled it out into the air, placing it against one ear. "H-hello? Is someone there? Look, we're stuck in room 22-"

"Um, yeah... room 225..? Is a Lucas Frettle in there?"

"...what..?"

"Lucas Frettle. Like Freckle, only without the 'eckle.' It's 'ettle..' like 'kettle.'"

Namine shook her head, witholding the next scream from erupting out of her mouth. That would certainly frighten their savior away. "No- Lucas Frettle isn't here. Could you send someone down to open the doo-"

"Oh. No Lucas Frettle? Okay. Thanks."

"No-no-no!!! Don't go yet!!"

Much to Namine's disappointment, the bored voice muttered something along the lines of 'bye' before the phone went dead again in her hands. She slammed the receiver down and yanked it back up again, pushing buttons are random- literally. There had to be one number that this phone reached, and she intended to find it.

Before she even came to the end of her rampage, the phone started ringing again.

"Um... yeah.. is there a Demyx something-or-another there..?" The bored voice was back, in all of its annoying glory.

Namine glanced down at the hiding spot the blond had dove for. "Yeah- there's a Demyx here. Listen: there are seven people in here, myself included, that are STUCK inside room 22-"

"Yeah, he's supposed to be in room 110 for Cooking. Just send him down, I'll let the teacher know."

"ARE YOU EVEN LISTENING TO ME?!?!"

The line went dead. The blond girl repeated the entire procedure over again, except she started muttering very unkind things about the other person on the other end... whomever they were. "They... will... PAY!!" The last button she pressed stayed down against the number pad for a few seconds, popping up only as the phone rang. "SOMEONE PLEASE HELP US, WE'RE STUCK-"

"Is there a Roxas and Axel something or other's in there, too?"

"If I say 'yes', will you listen to me?"

"Just send them to room 210. Thanks."

As the line went dead, so did Namine's will to strangle the faceless voice. Well, she still wanted to do that, but the reality of the situation finally caught up to her, and she knew that it would be a long time before she'd get the chance to do some strangling. She let the receiver down gently, scanning the room over for her students. Over the course of the three phone calls, all six had gotten over her wild screaming, and were seated- with the exception of Demyx- in their desks.

The latter blond was watching her carefully, quietly humming a song. "So, is this the right room..?" he asked with forced cheerfulness.

Namine decided to ignore that question. She picked out a desk at random, pointing at it with one finger. "Go sit.. and welcome to the first Art-Cooking Hybrid class."

* * *

At his very own, very new and very clean desk, Demyx glanced betwwen his two new and two quiet table-partners, humming his favorite song and tapping the rhythm ontop of the very new and very clean desk. The silver-haired kid, Riku, kept his mouth shut and eyes directly on the gray surface in front of him. Axel was not quite as silent; when the blond had started to sit down next to him, the redhead had been asking their teacher why Roxas couldn't move over instead?

His protests fell onto death ears. In fact, Namine gathered up the next group of supplies her class would need, considering the inner-structure of the classroom.. and mentally cursing out whomever had decided to put an art class in a windowless room. "All right, boys and girls," she picked out an empty four-desk table area to drop all she had gathered onto, "we're going to move onwards... since I can already see what became of the last exercise you all had time to do." She kicked aside some of the old paper missiles, giving Roxas and Axel a glare.

Riku grunted, pushing the heavy paperpacket he had labored over aside. He spied the redhead make a move towards it and growled, "Don't... you even... think about it." Axel settled back in his chair, momentarily stunned into obedience.

"You're not in a happy place," Demyx started out with an easy smile directed at the teen, "maybe you should try thinking of your favorite thing in the.. entire... world." Towards the end, he lost steam under Riku's glare and decided to give his new teacher his utmost attention.

Meanwhile, Namine continued on. "Since we've done a lot of drawing lately-"

"-do I have to make any of that up?"

The blond sighed. "No, Demyx... you don't... as I was saying, since we've been drawing for the past.. two hours-?! ONLY two HOURS?!" The girl made some noise inbetween a scream and dying gurgle, hands momentarily becoming entangled in her once neatly brushed hair. She forced herself to relax again, swinging a smile across the room, "For the past two hours- amazing how time just flies by, no?- we'll be moving onto some hands-on crafts. In this case- paper sculptures. There's newspaper in the back of the room, and what you'll be doing first is to set up the basic structure of your object by crumpling them up into different shapes and taping them all together. Like a skeleton. Once that is set up, you can pick up some pre-ripped up with a carton of this glue," she laid a hand on a tub of the Elmer's Craft Glue she had mixed up earlier that morning, "and start toughening up the exterior. Get two layers.. let it dry, and then we'll glue on strips of brown craft paper, which will enable you to draw on whatever designs you want so that you know where to paint. Okay?"

She nodded at Sora, who had risen his hand once she had finished. "...what?"

"All right, guys, just start building the skeleton and I'll come around to explain when you're done. Take your time- we have more than enough time to waste before I find a propane torch to melt the doorknobs off with." Namine laughed to herself, oblivous to the bland looks her students gave her.

Demyx tapped Axel on the shoulder. The redhead glanced over at him, one eyebrow rasied to silently ask, 'yeah, what?' "Is she usually like this...?"

Axel considered carefully and ended up nodding.

"..oh.." He paused, and tapped Axel on the shoulder again when another question came to mind. "So where does the cooking half of this class come in?" He didn't quite get it when the redhead just shook his head and muttered, 'idiot.'

* * *

I apologize again... and thank everyone for reading and reviewing. I'll try to do better. Thanks!! 


	6. Muffins and Cupcakes for All

Hola, ya'll! it's me again with another dose of... well, summer class, I guess. Thanks for reading and reviewing... and enjoy!

Disclaimer: Still nothing...

Note: This idea came from Bluesharkwave, so thanks out to ya!!

* * *

Chapter Six:

"What are you doing?" Riku found himself asking. Even worse, he already knew that he was going to find himself asking that very question to the same very person for the rest of the class... if intuition was really worth its salt.

Across from him, Axel muttered a curse under his breath when the question- as brief as it was- took his attention off of holding the paper ball in place. "What does it look like?" He fixed what errors had occured.

In between the brief pause, Demyx supplied the answer. (Since it didn't seem that Riku was about to waste any more of his breath on the issue.) "Like you're poking a hole in a newspaper-constructed spherical object." He smiled to himself, pleased that he had gotten a good number of vocabulary words into that one sentence.

Axel glanced upwards at him. "...Okay... we'll go with that."

"YES!" The blond punched the air triumphantly, not noticing how the other two edged their chairs ever so slightly away. He started whistling the melody to his favorite song, considering the arrangement of tape, newspaper and his own supplies. The likes of which include a mixing bowl, spatula and a cluster of different sizes of spoons... not necessarily 'measuring-spoon' sizes. He had them out, just in case Ms. Namine decided to take a break from the art class and to get started on the cooking.

In fact, he could probably start now.

"Hey, Axel?"

The redhead barely blinked at his name. "What now?"

"Do you think Ms. Namine would get upset if I caught up on the cooking I missed? What did you do already, anyways- muffins..? Cupcakes?"  
Riku and Axel exchanged identical, 'what-is-worng-with-him?' expressions. After a long moment, ending with the redhead taping up the newspaper skeleton some more and muttering to himself, the silver-haired teen replied, "Are you serious? This is an ART class- it doesn't have anything to do with coo-"

"Nononononononono-! Don't mess with him, Ritzo, he needs the time to catch up." Axel ignored the other teenager's glare, checking on Demyx. Fortunately, the blond had bought it- hook, line, and lie. "We whipped up some sort of cupcakes or, uh.. muffins before. Maybe cupfins, or mufcakes if you prefer. Anyways, I'll doubt she'll even notice. You catch up on the cooking, and I'll help out with the art side by setting up this project for you. Sounds good, Demmie?"

The blond was already gathering up his cooking equipment. It was a marvel that he could hold onto anything, much less see any of what he was picking up with the vigorous head nodding. "Deal! Thanks, Axel." He was gone from the table before Riku had the chance to close his mouth from its stunned, open position.

Of course, once he did, Riku directed the heftiest of his glares upon the oblivious redhead. "Two things- the name is Riku, and what is wrong with you?! There is no cooking involved here! And... mufcakes?"

"Dude..," Axel spared the briefest of seconds to flick his green eyes up towards the other teen, "two words: Free. Cupcakes."

Much to his annoyance and surprise, Riku found his own logic and arguments trumped down by the not-so-nice-but-still-logical 'logic' of the class clown. The silver-haired teen grumbled to himself, getting back to his project while the redhead across from him started setting up Demyx's art project.

* * *

Namine smoothed out the tape to her newspaper skeleton, muttering a curse at the wrinkling material of whatever tape was made of. The blond sighed and glanced over her classroom, making a mental checklist.

Axel and Roxas were behaving themselves as best as they could... Check.

Sora wasn't copying off of Kairi... Check.

Riku has not strangled Axel... Check.

Demyx is sitting in his seat, working on his project like the happy-go-lucky guy he was...

Not Check.

"Oh, now what?" Namine placed her project aside and slid out of her seat. She moved to the back table, where both Riku and Axel were, unbelievably, working quietly on their works. "Hey guys," She tapped the desk top in between the two boys, easily gaining their attention. "Where is Demyx?"

Axel blinked, adopting an innocent expression that most substitutes and teachers fell for... until the second week of school, if that long. "I think he went to go use the bathroom, Ms. Namine, ma'am."

"The door is jammed- how on Earth would he get out?"

"...He can walk through it?"

Namine opened her mouth, prepared to rip the redhead up one side and down the other, when the door actually opened. So, instead, she stared at the newcomer, mouth gaping open, instantly forgetting about Axel and his ridiculous lies.

Oblivious to his teacher's stare and Roxas's fit of giggles, Demyx ambled back into the art room. His carry-along cooking materials must have included the neon blue apron and traditional chef's hat, plus two very large, very yellow kitchen mitts swamping what should have been his hands and forearms. Tucked into those were two muffin trays. One contained muffins of questionable type, and the other held cupcakes of even more questionable origins.

He held these up to the others, beaming a cheerful grin. "Cupcakes or muffins anyone..?" As Axel and Roxas yipped in anticipation, beating out a hungry Sora to the food, Demyx finally took note of Namine. "Oh... Axel and I came up with an idea where I could make up for the cooking half of the class while not missing out on the art. He's helping me on the art when I'm cooking, and I get to cook!... you're not mad, right..?" Demyx waved the two other boys off and stepped inside, kicking at the partially open door to close it.

Namine didn't hear his question, but her full attention was taken up by the slow swing of the fake door. If the moment had been done in the slow motion that she was currently living, her cry of near distress would have sounded something like a deep, drawn out chord on some bass instrument. "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!"

She took one step... another step... moving through a sea of desperation to get to the doorknob, no longer caring if Bowser was seated outside or not. In such a moment, it was as if all of her senses had been heightened. She could practically feel the dirt and dust beneath her sandals, being kicked up to send asthmatics into attacks with each step she took... the air was a wall to battle through.. Axel's hair was a brighter, more neon-y red than normal...

The space between the door frame and door latch was drawing to a close... she reached out with her hands, lunging forward to snatch that elusive door...

BANG. It was the sound of defeat, of pain. Its echoes resounded in her ears, going through her mind twice before time sped back up to normal speed, and she was suddenly rushing for a closed door.

WHACK.

Squeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee... Namine's body, temporarily numbed from the impact, slid down onto the floor. She ended up face down on the ground, knocked out cold, all but drooling.

Riku was the first one to go near her. He knelt down next to her and poked her in the shoulder. She didn't move, and certainly didn't leap up to her feet, screeching 'NOO!' once again. The silver-haired teen looked up towards the new group of other students, all- for once- silent. "I think she's unconcious."

"...is that bad...?"

Axel sighed. "Yeah, Demyx... that's bad."

"...oh... we'll save her a cupcake and a muffin then."

His words went ignored. Sora and Riku helped to get Namine up off the floor and, after a short discussion on where to put her, stretched her out on one of the unused desk tables. In the wake of the accident, or whatever one could call that, those who would potentially take advantage of the time to goof off (Axel and Roxas, for sure) went silently back to their seats and to work.

Afterall, all they could do with a jammed and unopen-able door was to sit and wait... and hope she didn't die or go into a coma. Because that would really put a stain on their summers.

* * *

Joking on that last line, of course. Sorry it took forever to update, and thanks again to Bluesharkwave for the cooking idea. Any other suggestions are welcome! Thanks again!! 


	7. A Messy Dress

I am so sorry for not updating in... well, forever. I've been caught up with two other fics, plus other hobbies and yadah-yadah. Anyways... Um, thanks for waiting and enjoying and reading and all that and I better stop now...

Disclaimer: Don't own nothing out of Kingdom Hearts.

* * *

Chapter Seven: 

Quiet work had continued onwards for nearly a full half-hour. Such concentration led to the miracle of every person reaching the finish line.. well, for the first part of the project anyway.

Unfortunately, no one wanted to take the leap of faith in taking charge and leading the group onto the next step. Instead, they discussed the issue in an informal group meeting, taking place in a semi circle of chairs facing Namine's empty stool.

"The meeting is now in session. Gentlemen, in the broadest of definitions, please be seated." Kairi announced, choosing to ignore how her subjects did not rise out of their chairs at her grand assession to the throne. Er, the All Mighty Stool of the Art Teacher.

Roxas frowned. "Wait a minute... why are you the next teacher?"

"Do you see any other girls in this room?"

Sora glanced around the room, ending up shaking his head like Riku did. Demyx went on whistling his favorite song- the notes covered up the whispered conversation between the other blond and redhead. This time the latter spoke. "What if that could be arranged..?"

The silver-haired teen snorted. "What are you going to do- use the paint as make-up, paper towels and tape for a dress, and the yarn and pipe-cleaners for hair?"

"No," Roxas said, "his hair's long enough once you get the gel out of it." He gestured at Axel..

.. who jumped in his chair in surprise. "What-? You said that you were going to do it!"

"Dude, look." The blond smoothed down his hair, showing off the spikey hair's non-length. "Yours has to go down to your shoulders, at least. Right, Demyx?" His blue eyes flicked onto the older boy in question.

Demyx turned his nervous gaze onto Axel, only to catch a full-fledged 'don't even think about it' glare. In his surprise, he yelped and fell straight out of his chair, hitting Sora's knee with his head on the way down. With blurred vision, he decided to just go with the safer answer. "I-I-I-I... don't.. know.."

The brunette snapped his fingers over Demyx's face. At the lack of a response, he sighed and straightened back into his seat. That guy was lost.

"There- I told you that OWWWWW!!!" Axel had been turning towards his friend's chair, only to find it empty and someone's hands splitting the spikes in his hair and shoving them down flat against his head. "ROXAS!!!"

"NOW tell me his hair isn't long enough!"

"Gerroff of me, you-!!"

Sora and Kairi exchanged looks- Riku just laughed. The brunette glanced between the twisting redhead and his own best friend, and then his mouth just blurted out the first thing that came to mind despite what his brain would have wanted. "Hey, your hair is almost as long as Riku's."

The wrestling came to an abrupt end. Axel finally shook the blond off of him and busied himself with desperately trying to get his damaged hair back into its usual spikes, while Roxas studied a suddenly nervous Riku.

"Can we please get on with the discussion- take a seat, Roxie," Kairi tapped her pencil against the edge of the stool, pleased to find the blond following her orders- albeit moving closer to Riku... who tried edging away, only to find the end of a desk blocking his way- without arguing over the nickname. "Okay, so we're stuck with the second part of the project to finish. Fortunately, I happen to remember the second part of the directions... so we can continue."

Sora shrugged. "What do we have to do?"

"Just set up some glue, according to her notes."

"...she had notes?"

Kairi twisted around on top of the All Mighty Stool, bringing back a legal notepad when she twirled around again. "They were by the phone. And now I quote.., 'Mix glue, demonstrate, give instructions, exetera... exetera...' See, easy?"

"So where's this glue?"

"Over there," she pointed out cartoons with the picture of the Elmer's glue cow on the side, resting next to multiple plastic containers. "You want to help me out, Sora- Riku can keep those two busy here."

Sora grinned. "Sure." He dutifully followed his new teacher, leaving the real chaos behind them.

* * *

Riku had barely heard the conversation between the brunette and Kairi. He was too busy trying to ignore the blond inching closer and closer to him, and even succeeded until the latter bumped into him. "What?" Riku hissed, casting the best of all his glares into the blue eyes of the blond. 

"You wanna be a girl?"

He blinked. "...what...?"

"Well, it won't take long to style your hair, which will definitely cut down on the total amount of time to set you up," Roxas started explaining in a fast string of words. What he said bounced into one stunned ear and out the other as far as his victim was concerned. "You could be the real next teacher and let those of us who don't belong here, hint hint, out of the room.. without alerting the hallmonitors and all. Ya know?"

"...I'm not a cross-dresser. Go away."

"Think about it-!! You could give yourself a raise in salary, make the others create a statue in your honor... The possibilities are endless!"

Riku glared at him. "Then why don't you do it?"

"How can I enjoy the freedom of summer when I stuck here lording it over everyone else?"

"Go away."

"Are you suuuur-"

"Yes."

"You don't sound it."

Riku upped the intensity on his glare, even adding a growl for extra effect. The blond predictably started to edge away, eyes wide in fear. "Okay, okay... no need to get all flustered..." Roxas soon bumped into the redhead's chair- just about at the same time Sora happily skipped out of the circle behind the girl. He turned towards Axel and stated flatly. "Well.. it's down to you, Aly."

The redhead's eyes flicked over at him, throwing daggers. Neither said a word at first, until Axel broke the silence with a sigh. "Oh... fine." Roxas was up and out of his seat before the words had left his friend's mouth, spilling the plastic chair over and on Riku's toe. Axel left the scene as the silver-haired teen started to growl out obscenities.

* * *

Tapping again. That was starting to get annoying, Kairi found, the longer it continued onwards throughout the day. She took her eyes off the box long enough to glance over at a very bored brunette. "Sora... please stop." He did as she had asked, and she went back to searching for the directions. "Did you find them?" 

Sora sighed. "No, Ms. Kairi."

"You don't have to keep calling me that. The power trip is over now."

"Okay, Ms. Kairi."

Kairi flinched, reminding herself that sometimes her friend just needed a little push in the right direction in little doses. The type of encouragement that tended to be the direct opposite to being bashed in the head with a box of powdered glue.

"Ms. Kairi?"

She continued her search relentlessly. "Yeah?"

"...maybe there isn't any directions because we don't need to do anything to it... Maybe the glue is supposed to be like it is in the box."

"Sora..."

The brunette's blue eyes lit up in hope, and then he outright smiled as Kairi finished her sentence: "That is the best idea you have had today. Quick- get your project!" He hurried to do as she had ordered, overhearing the rip of cardboard as the box's lid came loose.

* * *

With Axel and Roxas mysteriously missing, Sora and Kairi dumping their projects in a bucket of white powder, Riku was left alone to wake Demyx up. "Hellloooooo..." He snapped his fingers directly next to one of the blond's ears- one loud snap after another. There wasn't a response. "Okay then... to the medical ward with you." 

Riku got back to his feet, briefly considering how to drag and then lift a person nearly a foot taller than himself. Well, he'd find out soon enough. He got a got hold on the older teen's arms and started to drag him along the floor, until he reached the make-shift tables where Namine was already stretched out, still sleeping or unconcious- one of 'em.

"This is going to be interesting..." He slung his arms under Demyx's arms and tried to lift the guy up like that. Now what... That was when pure genius struck. Riku held tightly onto the blond, lifting him further up off the ground as he stepped up onto one of the desk-table's chairs, and then up on the surface of the table itself.

Demyx was nearly standing upright, fortunately. Riku glanced over his shoulder, finding Namine's legs right behind him. He carefully moved one foot over her legs and started the drag the blond the rest of the way up. The struggle came to an end at the sound of a sigh and a rustle of limbs against the desk surface. He looked downwards, and sighed in relief to find that it was Namine waking up. "Namine?"

Her eyes fluttered open, blinking once.. twice.. and then she shrieked loudly, surprising Riku enough for the latter to let out a yelp. The shock apparently alerted Namine's reflexes- her arms flailed backwards and one leg flew upwards in an accidental kick. Poor Riku never saw it coming.

The pain, to put it simply, was tremendous. He lost his grip on Demyx and stumbled backwards a step, falling in the same direction off the table. Unfortunately for his misery, his shoulder caught the fall, so that instead of slipping peacefully into the sleep of unconciousness, he curled up into a tiny ball, trying desperately not to cry.

Namine edged to the side he had fallen over, oblivious to Demyx falling head first behind her. There was a loud thud as he met the floor, face first. "Riku..? Are you okay..?"

She couldn't help but crack a smile at the new, higher register in the teen's voice. "Just... peachy..."

"Sorry.."

"Uh-huh."

"No, really-" Namine's hand slipped, ridding herself of whatever balance she had leaning over the edge of the table. "AH-!!" Her head nailed the ground- Riku's side was nailed by her knee. "Uhhhhh..." Even he could tell without looking at her that she had sunk back to unconciousness... much to his jealousy.

It took a little work, but he managed to wiggle out of the mess. Riku glanced behind him at Namine, and then to Demyx, and then forwards again. "It's not worth it.." His voice had finally worked its way down the ladder of registers to the normal level again. He got up to his feet, looking around the room. (Somehow he wasn't surprised to find bits of powder now flying through the room from Sora and Kairi.)

He heard the door open and then click shut behind whoever had just walked in or out. Riku glanced over in that direction and froze. His mouth flopped open, and he could feel his face start to burn. Only one thought was recognizable in his head at that moment...

Whoa... She's HOT!

* * *

Two words... Evil. Grin. Anyways, you shall see in the next update- which I'll try to get out sooner... so sorry about that again...- and Thank you again for hanging in with me. 


	8. Ahh Love Part One

Thank you so much everyone for waiting- I'll try not to let it happen again... I just got wrapped up in writing for my other fics... So much for sticking to a schedule, huh? So, sorry. Thanx again, and enjoy!

Note: For Axel, Riku, Demyx, Marluxia and Sora fans alike... I apologize beforehand. (I'm an Axel fan... so I know how you may feel. Don't worry- it all works out.)

Disclaimer: Still nothing... unfortunately.. I also forgot to mention that I had used/ paraphrased a line in the previous chapter from one of Bill Cosby's stand-up routines. (His line was 'and the pain... was... tremendous. So, you can see how I used it before.)

* * *

Chapter Eight:

"And this, Aly," Roxas made sure to speak loudly enough to alert the entire classroom, "is our Art Class. Our teacher is there on the... floor- she was on the desks before- and our sub for the time being is flinging flour or cocaine around the room. For whatever reason." He paused for a second with a frown. "I can't believe we missed out on all the fun."

There was a drawn out sigh to his right, grabbing his attention over to the redhead. He had no idea what Axel was so unhappy about- the whole switch had gone pretty well, considering what they had to work with. Fortunately- and without any planning whatsoever- Marluxia had been waiting, er, messing with his hair in the bathroom, and kindly helped them out. Even went so far as to loan them a costume out of the Drama Club's supply.

The only thing they had to scrap for was make-up. It turned out that pastels- those annoying blocks of chalk- worked pretty well for blush and eyeshadow. (Even more so where the crushing them to powder part came in.)

"You don't look so bad, Aly. Or is Alice better..? The dress really brings out the green in your eyes."

"...My eyes are green. Completely," Axel retorted. His hand ran through his hair- Marluxia had brushed and combed (and practically wanted to use an iron) in order to straighten it out. So what should have been wild spikes was instead just-past-his-shoulders, super-straight locks of red. But that wasn't even the worst part. No, having to wear a dress that went nowhere's near his knees and then tights to hide the shaving cuts (razor was a courtesy from Marluxia). That was evil... Nevermind the other ideas that Marluxia and Roxas had come up with that were carried out... including the 'work' done on his 'flat' chest. "Whoever thought tights up should die." He hardly cared about his 'new' name... it was all just too embarrassing.

"Well, shave properly next time."

"Says the guy who has yet to learn-"

Roxas elbowed Axel in the side, effectively shutting the latter up with an 'Ow!' He had spied Riku, of all people, approaching them- and apparently he had been the only one to have heard the announcement. Roxas had just enough time to whisper a warning to Axel before the silver-haired teen was within earshot. "Don't forget- you're a girl now."

He ignored whatever the redhead muttered in reply, and instead turned a smile at Riku. "Hey, Riku. My friend Aly's joining our class for a bit." Axel/Aly nodded once. "So what's going... on?" Roxas took a closer look at Riku and frowned in surprise.

Ever since he and Axel had accidentally landed in the room, Riku's expression had barely ever changed from the heavy scowl. Now, though, every trace of that sour disposition had left his face. For one, he was smiling- almost grinning like Sora often did. There was also a thin blush on his face. Even more amazing, Riku's eyes did not leave- not even to cast a glare in Roxas's direction once- Aly's face. Ever.

Roxas fought against the urge to snap his fingers in front of Riku's face. It wasn't easy.

"Hi. Welcome to the class," Riku stuck a hand out, still smiling as friendly as could be. Even his voice was far more amiable than either Roxas or Axel had ever heard before.

Axel/Aly shook his hand as he hoped a girl would. "..Thanks..?" At least faking the voice was easier... compared to wrestling his hand out of Riku's grip anyways.

"If you want, I can help you catch up."

"...okay..."

No sooner had the word left his mouth did Riku grab his hand and start leading him away. Axel glanced over his shoulder at Roxas, pleading the blond with his eyes to come save him. Quickly.

But Roxas never moved...

* * *

Kairi set her project down onto the countertop and looked it over. The glue was hardly sticking to even the newspaper as it was to her fingers, clothes, hair, and even inside her ears. She glanced over at Sora, who now resembled a snowman. He was also still engrossed in slinging handfulls of glue all over the place.

"Sora?" She tapped him on the shoulder, first softly... and then hearly jabbing her fingernails into his shoulder when he didn't respond right away. "I don't think its working."

The brunette glanced between her and the newspaper. "Well.., glue has to dry, right?"

"...yeah..."

"Then we just need to get those newspaper bits, stick 'em on, and wait."

Kairi nodded, her blue eyes already searching for the plastic bags Namine had mentioned were full of pre-ripped paper. She spied one by the teacher's desk and fetched it. "Let's get started before the glue dries." She reached into the bag and pulled out a handfull of the paper. They were put into a spot between them, along with another two handfulls.

Although why Sora wasn't eagerly digging into the pile to get started was beyond her...

"Sora?" Kairi took her eyes long enough off her hands to look over at the brunette. The newspaper bit she had been smoothing on top of the skeleton structure was forgotten. He wasn't even looking at her. "Sora!"

The brunette had his eyes fixed on something else in the classroom. A smile that could almost be a reference for the cartoon 'my heart is melting in my chest' grins was plastered on his smudged face. It took a tug on his hair to get his attention. But she got it. "What?" Sora whined, rubbing the spot on his head. His eyes were already drifting off of her. "OW!"

Kairi drummed her fingers on the countertop. "The glue is going to dry on your project if you don't -SORA!!" Another tug on his hair. Another yelp. "What is so interesting that you're willing to fail this class?"

Sora sustained another hair-tugging, but this time his friend decided to follow his gaze. He took her silence for the same stunned feeling he had felt immediately upon glimpsing the irresistible new redheaded student. "I wonder what her name is..?"

The auborn-haired teenager snorted- perhaps the first time in her life- and her hands flew up to her waist in the classic female annoyed and displeased posture. "I wonder how she can even sit in a dress that short! Talk about a total sl-"

"-I'm going to find out! See ya, Kairi!"

Kairi watched, stunned once again, as Sora took barely a second to try and brush off the powder on his shirt and hair before rushing off towards the desk group where the new student- and Riku- were sitting. "You have got to be kidding me," she growled to herself, noting the same expression on Riku's face as she had seen on Sora. "Well, fine. Whatever. I am not going to let my hard work go to waste-!" She picked up another newspaper bit and slammed it onto her project. The once somewhat dog-shaped figure crumpled beneath her hand. "AGH!!"

She almost felt like crying... or ripping a certain redhead's hair out. One of them.

* * *

"How... interesting."

Riku sensed the conversation starting to tank- it hadn't taken long, unfortunately. But hey, art wasn't exactly his thing. He just signed up for the class to get the credit out of his way and because Kairi wouldn't let the subject go. "Yeah, I know.. It's all kinda boring, ya know?" He looked hopefully up into the lovely girl's eyes- sitting right across from him, yes!

She seemed to consider his words, and then shrugged. "True."

Well, they seemed to have one thing in common... so far. Yes! Riku leaned back in his chair. "Sooo... What do you like to do?" He was hoping it would be something that he could at least relate to. Nothing against Kairi or Namine, but singing and art... nevermind any 'girl' talk, was just not him.

"Well... sports.., making explosives.. Hanging out with friends... Setting off explosives." Another demure shrug- ah, such a graceful movement.. It'd make anyone swoon.. "Stuff like that."

"Wonderful..."

Aly blinked. "Excuse me?"

Riku forced himself to recover as quickly as possible, or to at least stop drooling. "Uh, huh.. heh... So- sports, uh? Lemme guesss.." He shut his eyes, hoping it'd add some suspense. Inwardly, he tried to imagine what kind of grueling activity could such a delicate and tall- very tall- girl be interested in...? His eyes opened up again. "Basketball?"

"Bingo, Riku."

The devil-ish and yet beautiful smile was enough to make his face start to burn, but the use of his name upped the red level in his face to a dark maroon. "S-same here. You wanna play a round sometime?" Like... today?

That smile again... "Sure. When do you want to get your butt handed to you?"

"Once we get out of here?"

She smiled and nodded once. He barely witheld the shout of joy rising in his throat. The words themselves were a joyous thing but the brunette who was now approaching- or should his hair be stated as 'white', now?- was enough of a sight to keep the cry in. Riku watched as Sora took the chair next to Aly- why didn't he think of that?!- and fixed her with what some people would call a 'charming' grin... and what Riku would have described as 'Begging to be punched in the mouth' show of the teeth.

"Hey there.. Name's Sora. You?" The brunette stuck a powdery hand out. If looks could kill, Riku's eyes would have been shooting canon balls at his former friend's head. How dare he mar such perfect, delicate hands with such, such gunk?!

"..Aly.."

Riku couldn't stand it any longer. "Any reason you're here, Sora?" The way he said the brunette's name meant that he had better have a very, very good reason to be there. Or else.

Not that the brunette seemed to notice. His blue eyes were glued on Aly- poor girl. "Soooo... you like art too? Ya know, there's little other pleasure in the world than to stare at a work of art." His smile barely twitched as the silver-haired teen delivered a hard kick under the table.

"Umm..." Aly's eyes flicked from one teenager to the other. "Do you play basketball too?" The question did what it was supposed to- it sparked a conversation between the three of them... more or less.. At the very least, it didn't look as if Riku was going to leap over the desk and pummel Sora into the ground any time soon.

* * *

Roxas had taken a seat at the desk next to the unconcious Demyx's feet- not that he noticed the other blond, or even Namine. His gaze was stuck on the two less than ten feet away- one who was staying unusually quiet (for him) and the other was far more sappy than could possibly be healthy. And then Sora showed up, with the same goofy smile on his face. Poor Axel.. How could stand the attention of two guys? And yet, somehow, there was a happy smile on the redhead's face! And... was he flirting?!

Roxas heard a repetitious tapping and came to the realization that he was the one doing it. He made himself stop and, with far more effort, look away from his former bestfriend. His eyes swung past Kairi- boy she looked ticked- and onto a pair of very large, hazel eyes.

"Ah!" The blond fell off his chair backwards. Demyx received an extra bruise, courtesy of the pink-haired, giggling abberation now standing above him. Once upon a time Roxas might have called him 'Marluxia', but the fiend had transformed himself; his hair was tied back into a ponytail- the rose he usually carried around had become a hair decoration. His outfit was now a denim skirt and a white tanktop with a large, pink daisy on the front.

It giggled again. "I didn't scare you, did I?" Roxas noticed a glint on the fiend's smile and realized in dismay that it was lip gloss. "Let me help you up, hon'." The blond let himself be helped up- his mind, already in a whirl, noted the Southern drawl (drama class was working apparently) and the natural way the fiend could walk in the highheels. (And he certainly hadn't been shy in the 'fixing the flat chest problem' department.)

This guy was a pro.

Roxas took his seat again- Marluxia claimed the chair next to him, effectively blocking out Aly and her two admirers. "What are you doing here?" The blond hissed. More importantly, how had he gotten in?

Marluxia pouted. "Oh, I hope ya don't mind. I told Larxene about this 'Plan B' idea, and we both thought it'd be fun to watch.. We also agreed that Axel- er, Aly right?- Aly would be swarmed by the boys in your class... and we were right apparently." He had glanced over his shoulder, where Aly, Riku and Sora were now laughing over some joke or another. He was also completely oblivious to the blond's dark expression (or was he..?). "He jus' looked so.. lovely before- angry too, but still... Oh-! Larx'll be comin' too- she just has to get out of Cookin' class."

"Wait..," Roxas's face started to pale from the ridiculous deep red of rage, "Larxene is coming too?!"

"Well, that's what I said hon'." Marluxia giggled, once again oblivious to whatever emotion was passing on the blond's face. "An' my name'll be..hmm," he leaned in closer towards the blond, visibly thinking over the prospect, "Mary. Or April. I don't know which is better... What do you think?"

Roxas buried his head in his hands. What had he started..?

"Umm.. I'll just go with May. Make a compromise, ya know?"

"...yeah..." The blond shut his eyes from the insane giggling. He forced himself to raise his head and open his eyes again. "So, May- what's your excuse?"

'May' unzipped her purse- a purse too?!- and rummaged through it, withdrawing a mirror. She flipped the top over and checked her make-up, calmly tucking a stray lock of hair behind one ear. "I should've brought clips," for a split second, she almost sounded like Marluxia, but then the drawl and higher register came back into his/her voice, "Well, Roxie, I'm a student coming from out of the district to get a pesky art credit out of the way before senior year.. Hmm... or maybe I should try younger- think I can pull it off?" The blond didn't make a move. "Nevermind- we'll keep it as senior year. Anyways, I mistimed the start of class and arrived late. Sound good?"

"..yeah.."

"Oh good." May snapped the mirror shut and put it back into her bag. She twisted in her seat so that she was partially facing the other table. "Let's watch the fun.."

* * *

The darkness was finally started to lift. Demyx's eyes fluttered open, and shut themselves again at the intensity of the overhead lights. It hurt. "M'ow..." Keeping his eyes closed, the blond pushed himself up into a sitting position, slowly becoming aware of the insane pain in his head, plus his stomach. What had happened..?

He tried thinking back, and made himself stop when the exercise was making his head hurt even more. His ears were picking up on some nearby conversation, and he almost thought he recognized both of the voices. No, wait... No- just the one. (Almost had the second one, but he was wrong.) Demyx mumbled something, opened his eyes and immediately spied Roxas sitting on a chair directly next to him.

"Rok's..?" His hand found the edge of the table- or maybe the kid's arm- it depended on whether the other blond had yelped in surprise or not- and got himself up onto his knees. His grip was thrown off, but found the table instead, and he held onto that to stay up.

And that's when he saw HER. All of his pain, worries, and confusion disappeared in a heartbeat. She was far too beautiful to bother thinking about such trivial matters when SHE was in sight. Demyx felt his face start to flush- SHE was looking at him! And smiling!! "Uh.. h-h-, ahem- uh... Hi..?"

There was a brief string of heavenly giggles, and then SHE replied- to him!!-, "Hello, cutie."

Demyx thought his heart had stopped- not just skipped a beat, but just stopped dead in his chest- from that single word..

Next to him, and completely ignored by the others, Roxas's face paled once more, and he buried his face in his hands. Whatever he said to himself was muddled beyond comprehension.

* * *

"This is ridiculous- excuse ME, DEMYX!!" Kairi had finally come to the decision that it was beyond time for their real teacher to wake up and bring some order to this Chaos. In her haste to get everything set, and she was too angry to think straight anyways, she went without washing off the glue, and so instead tracked powdery footprints with every step she took. Her path took her past Sora and Riku- she wasn't even going to look at the redhead (although she did give the girl's head a glare)- and then Roxas, around Demyx's legs and past some pink-haired-

Wait a minute.

Kairi caught herself with the table edge when she tripped over the blond's legs- he didn't even notice- in her attempt to quickly whirl around. It was clearly some new girl in their classroom- just like the redhead, except with lighter hair. And why were the two blonds unable to look away from her?!

"Grah-!" Kairi's cry of rage went ignored. She disappeared behind the table from their view when she knelt down next to the unconcious Namine. She lightly tapped the side of the blond's face. "Namine- wake up!! We have an emergency!! The boys have lost their minds- comPLETEly!"

Namine's eyes fluttered open. "Kai..ri? Ow- stop that!" She twisted her head away, fending off the auborn-haired girl with her hands. It took a while, but she managed to sit up. "Is the building on fire?"

"Worse."

The blond arched an eyebrow. "Did Riku kill Axel..?"

"Even worse."

"He killed both Axel and Roxas?"

"Worse than that!"

Namine shook her head. "Then what.?" she asked. Her answer was Kairi dragging her up to her feet. She was then directed to look around the room, at two different spots. What Namine saw made her eyes widen in surprise and her mouth drop open. "Who are they- how did they get in here, and- and.. and.." A scowl had settled over her face- directed solely at Roxas. "ROXAS!!"

The blond in question jumped in surprise. His blue eyes flew over towards Namine. "W-what?"

"Get... over... here... NOW!"

He yelped, scrambled out of his chair- the pink-haired girl was giggling, drawing an ever deeper blush (if at all possible) on Demyx's face- and hurried to join the two girls. Roxas looked between the two of them, drawing back a half step at the glares he was getting. "Y-yeah?"

"Go get Demyx away from that.. that... girl-"

"May?"

"YES. Her. Go bring him over to that corner, behind the desk," Namine pointed towards the opposite side of the room and the far corner. The desk was cluttered enough that she believed it would serve as an effective barrier for a few short minutes. "NOW!" She shooed him off and turned towards Kairi, who, she was relieved to see, was far more attentive and willing to follow orders. "You get Sora, I'll get Riku. Same thing. THAT corner." She pointed again- just in case.

Kairi nodded and hurried off, cating the pink-haired girl's head the same glare she had given to the redhead. Namine hesitated a touch longer and then stormed off.

* * *

I'm going to put in an intermission here... just so I don't frighten anyone off by submitting very long chapters.. And because it seemed like a good idea. I hope you enjoyed, I apologize again, and please review. I luv feedback. (but don't kill me please- I'm already running from Axel and Marluxia and Roxas and Riku- and you get the idea.) 


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